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Netfix
Netflix, Inc. is a provider of on-demand Internet streaming media available to viewers in all of North America (except Cuba), South America and parts of Europe (Denmark, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden,Finland, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and Germany),4 and of flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States, where mailed DVDs are sent via Permit Reply Mail. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California. It started its subscription-based service in 1999. By 2009, Netflix was offering a collection of 100,000 titles on DVD and had surpassed 10 million subscribers.5 As of September 2014, Netflix has subscribers in over 40 countries, with intentions of expanding their services in unreached countries (such as New Zealand and Australia).6 On February 25, 2007, Netflix delivered its billionth DVD.7 In April 2011, Netflix had 23.6 million subscribers in the United States and over 26 million worldwide.8 By 2011, the total digital revenue for Netflix reached at least $1.5 billion.9 On October 23, 2012, however, Netflix reported an 88% decline in third-quarter profits.10 In January 2013, Netflix reported that it had added two million U.S. customers during the fourth quarter of 2012 with a total of 27.1 million U.S. streaming customers, and 29.4 million total streaming customers. In addition, revenue was up 8% to $945 million for the same period.11 As of mid-March 2013, Netflix had 33 million subscribers.12 That number increased to 36.3 million subscribers (29.2 million in the U.S.) in April 2013.13 As of September 2013, for that year's third quarter report, Netflix reported its total of global streaming subscribers at 40.4 million (31.2 million in the U.S.).14 By the fourth quarter of 2013, Netflix reported 33.1 million U.S. subscribers.15 By the second quarter of 2014, there were more than 50 million subscribers globally.16 On January 16, 2014, the nomination of The Square (2013) for an Academy Award became the first ever nomination for a Netflix original production.1718 Contents hide * 1 History ** 1.1 International * 2 Services ** 2.1 Internet video streaming *** 2.1.1 History ** 2.2 Disc rental *** 2.2.1 Qwikster ** 2.3 Profiles *** 2.3.1 Five profiles * 3 Programming ** 3.1 Original programming ** 3.2 Movie and television library * 4 Device support ** 4.1 Hardware supported ** 4.2 Software support ** 4.3 Video game consoles ** 4.4 Set-top boxes ** 4.5 Blu-ray Disc players ** 4.6 Televisions ** 4.7 Handheld devices * 5 Sales and marketing ** 5.1 Expansion ** 5.2 Competitors * 6 Awards ** 6.1 Time Warner * 7 Finance and revenue ** 7.1 2010 ** 7.2 2011 ** 7.3 2014 * 8 Legal issues and controversies ** 8.1 Recommendation algorithm and the "Netflix Prize" ** 8.2 Throttling of DVDs by mail ** 8.3 Releasing this week ** 8.4 Dynamic queue, subscription, and delivery methods ** 8.5 Removal of social networking feature ** 8.6 Linux support *** 8.6.1 Third-party solutions ** 8.7 Closed captioning * 9 Technical details ** 9.1 Streaming ** 9.2 Netflix API ** 9.3 IT infrastructure ** 9.4 Netflix Open Connect CDN * 10 Cultural effects * 11 Netflix in popular culture * 12 See also * 13 References * 14 External links Historyedit Netflix headquarters in Los Gatos. Netflix was founded in 1997 in Scotts Valley, California by Marc Randolph1920 and Reed Hastings, who previously had worked together at Pure Software. Randolph was a co-founder of MicroWarehouse, a computer mail order company; and was later employed by Borland International as vice president of marketing. Hastings, who once worked as a math teacher, had founded Pure Software, which he had recently sold for $700 million. Hastings invested $2.5 million in startup cash for Netflix.21 The idea of Netflix came to Hastings when he was forced to pay $40 in overdue fines after returning Apollo 13 well past its due date.22 The Netflix website was launched on August 29, 199723 with only 30 employees and 925 works available for rent through a traditional pay-per-rental model (50¢US per rental U.S. postage; late fees applied).24 Netflix introduced the monthly subscription concept in September 1999,25 and then dropped the single-rental model in early 2000. Since that time, the company has built its reputation on the business model of flat-fee unlimited rentals without due dates, late fees, shipping and handling fees, or per title rental fees. In 2000, Netflix was offered for acquisition to Blockbuster for $50 million, however Blockbuster declined the offer. Netflix initiated an initial public offering (IPO) on May 29, 2002, selling 5.5 million shares of common stock at the price of US$15.00 per share. On June 14, 2002, the company sold an additional 825,000 shares of common stock at the same price. After incurring substantial losses during its first few years, Netflix posted its first profit during fiscal year 2003, earning US$6.5 million profit on revenues of US$272 million. In 2005, 35,000 different film titles were available, and Netflix shipped 1 million DVDs out every day.26 Netflix developed and maintains an extensive personalized video-recommendation system based on ratings and reviews by its customers. On October 1, 2006, Netflix offered a $1,000,000 prize to the first developer of a video-recommendation algorithm that could beat its existing algorithm, Cinematch, at predicting customer ratings by more than 10%.27 In February 2007, the company delivered its billionth DVD28 and began to move away from its original core business model of mailing DVDs by introducing video on demand via the Internet. Netflix grew as DVD sales fell from 2006 to 2011.2930 Netflix has played a prominent role in independent film distribution. Through the division Red Envelope Entertainment, Netflix licensed and distributed independent films such as Born into Brothels and Sherrybaby. As of late 2006, Red Envelope Entertainment also expanded into producing original content with filmmakers such as John Waters.31 Netflix closed Red Envelope Entertainment in 2008, in part to avoid competition with its studio partners.3233 Netflix has been one of the most successful dot-com ventures. A September 2002 article from The New York Times said that at the time, that Netflix mailed about 190,000 discs per day to its 670,000 monthly subscribers.34 The company's published subscriber count increased from one million in the fourth quarter of 2002 to around 5.6 million at the end of the third quarter of 2006, to 14 million in March 2010. Netflix's growth has been fueled by the fast spread of DVD players in households; as of 2004, nearly two-thirds of U.S. homes had a DVD player. Netflix capitalized on the success of the DVD and its rapid expansion into U.S. homes, integrating the potential of the Internet and e-commerce to provide services and catalogs that brick and mortar retailers could not compete with. Netflix also operates an online affiliate program which has helped it to build online sales for DVD rentals. The company offers unlimited vacation time for salaried workers and allows employees to take any amount of their paychecks in stock options.35 By 2010, Netflix's streaming business had grown so quickly that within months the company had shifted from the fastest-growing customer of the United States Postal Service's first-class mail service to the biggest source of Internet traffic in North America in the evening. In November of that year, it began offering a standalone streaming service separate from DVD rentals.36 On September 18, 2011, Netflix announced its intentions to rebrand and restructure its DVD home media rental service as an independent subsidiarycompany called Qwikster, totally separating the DVD rental and streaming services.373839 Andy Rendich, a 12-year veteran of Netflix, would have been appointed the CEO of Qwikster. The new service would carry video games whereas Netflix did not.40However, in October 2011, Netflix announced that it would retain its DVD service under the name Netflix and would not, in fact, create Qwikster for that purpose.41 On October 24, 2011, Netflix announced it lost 800,000 subscribers in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2011 and more subscriber losses were expected in the fourth quarter of 2011. Despite the losses, earnings for Netflix jumped 63 percent for the third quarter of 2011.4243 On January 26, 2012, Netflix said it added 610,000 subscribers in the U.S. by the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, totaling 24.4 million U.S. subscribers for this time period.44 In April 2012, Netflix filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to form a political action committee (PAC) called FLIXPAC.45 Politico referred to the Los Gatos, California-based PAC as "another political tool with which to aggressively press a pro-intellectual property, anti-video-piracy agenda."45 The hacktivist group Anonymous called for a boycott of Netflix following the news.46 Netflix spokesperson Joris Evers indicated that the PAC was not set up to support the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), tweeting that the intent was to "engage on issues like net neutrality, bandwidth caps, UBB and VPPA."4748 On December 24, 2012, at around 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time, a number of Amazon Web Services servers crashed, affecting numerous services including Netflix "instant streaming". The outage lasted more than 20 hours.4950 In February 2013, Netflix announced it would be hosting its own awards ceremony, The Flixies.51 On March 13, 2013, Netflix announced it would add a Facebook sharing feature to the Netflix interface, letting subscribers in the U.S. see lists of content "Watched by your friends" and "Friends' Favorites" once they agree to share.52 This was not legal until the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act was modified at the beginning of 2013.53 In April 2014, Netflix approached 50 million global subscribers with a 32.3% video streaming market share in the United States. Netflix operates in a total of 41 countries around the world.54 In June 2014, Netflix unveiled a redesigned version of its logo (using a modified typeface, and removing the drop shadowing and red background of the previous logo) and website UI. The change was controversial; some liked the new minimalist design, whereas others felt more comfortable with the old interface.55 In July 2014, Netflix surpassed 50 million global subscribers, with 36 million of them being in the United States.56 Internationaledit On September 22, 2010, Netflix launched a streaming-only service in Canada, marking the company's first expansion into international markets.57 This was followed in the spring of 2011, with Netflix's announcement of its entrance into the Latin American market by the end of the year, and then into the European market in the following year starting with Spain,58 although this ultimately proved to be false. Subsequently, Netflix completed the launch of streaming-content services in Latin America in September 2011 by launching its service in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America. On January 9, 2012, Netflix officially launched a streaming-only service in the United Kingdom and Ireland.5960 In 2012, Netflix reached the one million member milestone in the two countries.60 By September 2013, Netflix had added content from Channel 4, ITVand the BBC.61 Netflix expanded further by rolling out its services to Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland before the end of 2012.62 The service was launched on October 18, 2012.63 Netflix announced on June 19, 2013 that the company would expand its service to The Netherlands by late 2013. Further details on the service in this area, such as prices and content, would be released at a later time.64 The Netherlands service was launched on September 11, 2013;65 Kelly Merryman, the company’s Vice President of Content Acquisition, revealed that shows that perform well on BitTorrent networks and other pirate sites are more likely to be offered as part of the expansion. Netflix's CEO further explained that illegal downloading helps to create demand, as users may switch to legal services for an improved user experience.6667 On May 21, 2014, Netflix announced its intention to expand and launch in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium andLuxembourg.68 Netflix launched in those countries on September 15 (France), 16, (Germany), 17 (Austria), 18 (Switzerland), 19, Belgium and Luxembourg). In June 2014, rumors surfaced from Australian film industry magazine Inside Film that Netflix was seeking the Australasian rights for various films and television shows, with plans to launch in Australia and New Zealand in the first quarter of 2015. A Netflix spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.69 In November 2014, it was confirmed that Netflix will be available in Australia and New Zealand in March 2015.7071 In August 2014, Netflix had an estimated 3 million subscribers in the United KIngdom72 and 4.85 million subscribers in Latin America, of which 2.8 million were in Brazil.73 Servicesedit Netflix is a subscription-based movie and television program rental service that offers media to subscribers via Internet streaming and via US mail. Internet video streamingedit In addition to Netflix's disc rental service, Netflix separately offers an Internet video streaming service, which gives Internet-connected devices access to Netflix's online content library. The two libraries are also notably different, with the disc library having more movie titles available,74 while the streaming library has more Netflix original content. According to a 2013 report by Sandvine, Netflix is the biggest source of North American downstream web traffic, at 32.3%, and registered 28.8% of aggregate traffic.75 When the streaming service first launched, Netflix's traditional rental-disc subscribers were given access at no additional charge. Subscribers were allowed approximately one hour of streaming per dollar spent on the monthly subscription (a $16.99 plan, for example, entitled the subscriber to 17 hours of streaming media). In January 2008, however, Netflix lifted this restriction, at which point virtually all rental-disc subscribers were entitled to unlimited streaming at no additional cost (however, subscribers on the restricted plan of two DVDs per month ($4.99) were still limited to two hours of streaming per month). This change was a response to the introduction of Hulu and to Apple's new video rental services.76 Subsequently, as it became clear that disc-rental and Internet streaming markets were distinct, Netflix split DVD rental subscriptions and streaming subscriptions into separate, standalone services, at which point the monthly caps on Internet streaming were lifted. Until October 10, 2014 Netflix did not officially support playback on Linux PCs, although the Linux-based Roku devices are supported. It is possible to connect the Roku device, game console, or Blu-ray Disc player to a Linux PC (or directly to the computer monitor) with an adapter. It is also possible to run Windows and Netflix in a virtual machine such as Virtualbox or QEMU. In a TechRepublic interview in August 2010, Netflix's VP of Corporate Communications stated that available Silverlight plugins for Linux, such asMoonlight, do not support the PlayReady DRM system that Netflix requires for playback.77 Netflix does support the Android operating system, which uses a forked version of the Linux kernel. There is an unofficial Netflix app based on Wine that allows watching Netflix's streaming content on Linux without installing Windows in a virtual machine. Pipelight, an add-on for Firefox based on the Netflix-Desktop project allows Netflix playback through Linux Native web browsers by connecting to the Silverlight plug-in running on a Wine base.78 However, on October 10, 2014 the required DRM plugins to play Netflix's HTML 5 videos became available for Chrome users running Ubuntu 12.04 or 14.04.79 According to a survey by Nielsen in July 2011, 42% of all Netflix users make use of a stand-alone computer to connect to the service, 25% do so by using the Wii, 14% by connecting their computers to a television set, 13% make use of a PlayStation 3 and 12% use an Xbox 360.80 The selection of available titles is based upon the user's IP address. For most users, this corresponds to the user's physical location. However, it means that, for example, a user in Canada who is accessing the Internet through a U.S.-based router connection will see the selection available to U.S. users. Historyedit On October 1, 2008, Netflix announced a partnership with Starz Entertainment to bring more than 2,500 new movies and television shows to "Watch Instantly" as part of a service called Starz Play.81 In August 2010, Netflix reached a five-year deal worth nearly $1 billion to stream movies from Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The deal increased the amount Netflix was spending on streaming movies annually and adds roughly $200 million per year. It spent $117 million in the first six months of 2010 on streaming, up from $31 million in 2009.82 On July 12, 2011, Netflix announced that it would separate its existing subscription plans into two separate plans: one covering the instant streaming and the other DVD rental services.83 The cost for streaming would be $7.99 per month, while DVD rental would start at the same price. The announcement led to a flurry of negative reception amongst Netflix's Facebook followers, posting negative comments on the company's wall.84 Twitter comments also spiked a "Dear Netflix" trend with generally negative comments.84The company defended its decision during its initial announcement of the change. "Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add-on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs," Netflix wrote on its blog. "Creating an unlimited-DVDs-by-mail plan (no streaming) at our lowest price ever, $7.99, does make sense and will ensure a long life for our DVDs-by-mail offering."83 In a reversal, Netflix announced in October 2011 that its streaming and DVD-rental plans would remain together under the Netflix brand.85 On September 1, 2011, Starz announced it would remove their movies from Netflix streaming on February 28, 2012. Since the agreement was strictly for streaming movie titles, DVD rentals through Netflix were not affected.86 However, around that same time, it was announced Netflix would, in 2013, assume the pay-TV rights to films from DreamWorks Animation (those output rights are currently held by HBO). Disc rentaledit Example of a Netflix DVD rental of Kill Bill. Discs are returned in the same envelopes they are sent to customers. In the United States, the company provides a monthly flat-fee service for the rental of DVD and Blu-ray Discs. A subscriber creates an ordered list, called a rental queue, of movies to rent. The movies are delivered individually via the United States Postal Service from an array of regional warehouses. As of March 28, 2011, Netflix had 58 shipping locations throughout the U.S.87 The subscriber can keep the rented movie as long as desired, but there is a limit on the number of movies (determined by subscription level) that each subscriber can have on loan simultaneously. To rent a new movie, the subscriber must mail the previous one back to Netflix in a metered reply mail envelope. Upon receipt of the disc, Netflix ships the next available disc in the subscriber's rental queue. Netflix offers several pricing tiers for DVD rental of one to three DVDs at a time. Subscribers with accounts in good standing can upgrade to plans offering up to eight DVDs at a time. Gift subscriptions are also available. On November 21, 2008, Netflix began offering its subscribers access to Blu-ray Discs for an additional fee. In addition to its movie rental service, Netflix formerly sold used movies. The purchase was delivered via the same system and billed using the same payment methods as rentals. This service was discontinued at the end of November 2008.88 On January 6, 2010, Netflix reached an agreement with Warner Bros. Pictures to delay rentals of new releases for 28 days from their retail release, in an attempt to help studios sell more physical media at retail outlets. Similar deals with Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox was reached on April 9, 2010.899091 In 2011, Netflix split its service pricing so that customers can decide whether they want to pay for online streams, access to DVDs by mail, or both. Qwiksteredit On September 18, 2011, Netflix CEO and Co-Founder Reed Hastings said in a Netflix blog post that the DVD section of Netflix would be split off and renamed Qwikster, and the only major change would be separate websites for the services.92 The new service was to also carry video games for an additional charge, whereas the previous Netflix did not.40 Netflix subscribers who wanted DVDs by mail would have had to use a separate website to access Qwikster. On October 10, 2011, following negative reaction from customers, Hastings cancelled the planned Qwikster service and said the DVD-by-mail service would remain a part of Netflix.93 Profilesedit In June 2008, Netflix announced plans to eliminate its online subscriber profile feature.94 Profiles allow one subscriber account to contain multiple users (for example, a husband and wife, two roommates, or parent and child) with separate DVD queues, ratings, recommendations, friend lists, reviews, and intra-site communications for each. Netflix contended that elimination of profiles would improve the customer experience.95 However, likely as a result of negative reviews and reaction by Netflix users,969798 Netflix reversed its decision to remove profiles 11 days after the announcement.99 In announcing the reinstatement of profiles, Netflix defended its original decision, stating, "Because of an ongoing desire to make our website easier to use, we believed taking a feature away that is only used by a very small minority would help us improve the site for everyone," then explained its reversal: "Listening to our members, we realized that users of this feature often describe it as an essential part of their Netflix experience. Simplicity is only one virtue and it can certainly be outweighed by utility."100 Five profilesedit Netflix introduced a "Profiles" feature on August 1, 2013 that permits accounts to accommodate up to five unique user profiles, associated either with individuals or themes of their choosing (e.g., "Date Night"). "Profiles" effectively segregates the viewing habits of each profile category (e.g., family member) so that each profile will receive individualized suggestions and the ability to add its own favorite titles. This is important, according to Todd Yellin, Netflix's vice president of product innovation, because, "About 75 percent to 80 percent of what people watch on Netflix comes from what Netflix recommends, not from what people search for".101 Moreover, Mike McGuire, a vice president at Gartner, said: "profiles will give Netflix even more detailed information about its subscribers and their viewing habits, allowing the company to make better decisions about what movies and TV shows to offer".102 Additionally, the profiles feature lets users link their Facebook accounts, and thus share their individual viewing history and receive recommendations from friends.102103 (Netflix added Facebook integration in March after lobbying Congress to change an old video law.103) Neil Hunt, Netflix's chief product officer, told CNNMoney: "profiles are another way to stand out in the crowded streaming-video space", and, "The company said focus-group testing showed that profiles generate more viewing and more engagement".104 Hunt says Netflix may link profiles to specific devices, in time, so a subscriber can skip the step of launching a specific profile each time s/he logs into Netflix on a given device.105 Critics of the feature have noted: * New profiles are created as "blank slates",105 but the viewing history prior to the creation of new, unique profiles stays with the main profile.106 * We don't always watch Netflix alone, and shows watched from a profile that accommodate one's viewing partner(s) - whose tastes may not reflect those of the profile owner(s) - affect recommendations made to that profile104105106 In response to both concerns, however, users can refine future recommendations for a given profile by rating the shows watched and by their ongoing viewing habits.105106 Programmingedit Original programmingedit Further information: List of original programs distributed by Netflix In March 2011, Netflix began acquiring original content for its popular subscription streaming service, beginning with the hour-long political drama House of Cards, which debuted on the streaming service in February 2013. The series was produced by David Fincher, and stars Kevin Spacey.107 In late 2011, Netflix picked up two eight-episode seasons of Lilyhammer and a fourth season of the former Fox sitcom Arrested Development.108109 Netflix announced that it would release the supernatural drama series''Hemlock Grove'' in early 2013.110 In February 2013, DreamWorks Animation and Netflix agreed to produce a new animated series called Turbo FAST, based on the movie Turbo, which premiered in July of that year.111112 In March 2013, Netflix announced it signed on The Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski to write, direct and executive produce their new scifi series, Sense8.113 It is set to debut in 2015.114 House of Cards, Lilyhammer, Hemlock Grove and Orange Is the New Black were each renewed for an additional season, with scheduled 2014 returns.115 In mid-2013, Netflix revealed that it holds the option to produce another season of Arrested Development, but a confirmed schedule was not released.116 In November 2013, Netflix and Marvel Television (a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company) announced a five-season deal to produce live action series focused on four Marvel superheroes: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage. The deal involves the broadcast of four 13-episode seasons that culminate in a mini-series called The Defenders. The programs are planned for a 2015 debut.117118119 In addition to the Marvel Television deal with Netflix, The Walt Disney Company announced that the television series''Star Wars: The Clone Wars'' would release its sixth and final season exclusively on Netflix, as well as all five prior seasons and the Clone Wars feature film. The new content was released on Netflix's streaming service on March 7, 2014.120 In December 2013, Netflix acquired the exclusive rights to stream the anime series Knights of Sidonia in all its territories.121 The entire first season was released on Netflix one week after ending its run in Japan on July 4, 2014 and a second season is in production. In February 2014, just after the second season of House of Cards was released, it was renewed for a third season, scheduled to air in 2015.122 In April 2014, Netflix signed Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz and his production firm The Hurwitz Company to a multi-year deal to create original projects for the service.123 In September 2014, Netflix beat out Amazon Prime and Hulu for the rights to Love, a new romantic-comedy series from Judd Apatow, Leslie Arfin, and Paul Rust (who will star alongside Gillian Jacobs). It also announced that Hemlock Grove was renewed for a third and final season, to air in 2015.124 On November 19, 2014, it was announced that Longmire will air a ten-episode fourth season in 2015.125 Movie and television libraryedit Netflix currently has exclusive "pay TV window" deals with major and mini-major movie studios (the "pay TV" deals in essence, give Netflix exclusive streaming rights and are not distinct from the distribution rights held by traditional pay television services, which are also effectively prohibited from obtaining first-run linear television rights with these deals). As of 2014, films featured on "Watch Instantly" service in the United States include recent releases from Relativity Media (and its subsidiary Rogue Pictures),126 as well as titles from DreamWorks Animation (DreamWorks Animation began streaming its films in 2013 after the expiration of HBO's previous deal with the studio),127 Open Road Films128 (Netflix's contract with Open Road Films will expire after 2016, at which timeShowtime will assume pay television rights129), FilmDistrict,130 The Weinstein Company,131132 Sony Pictures Animation,133 and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (including Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disneynature, Pixar, Lucasfilmand Marvel Studios), among others. Epix (one of the first traditional pay television channels to launch a Netflix-style streaming service) signed a five-year streaming deal with Netflix in which for the first two years, first-run as well as back catalog content from Epix was exclusive to Netflix (Epix films will come to Netflix 90 days after they premiere on Epix. The exclusivity clause ended on September 4, 2012, when Amazon signed a deal with Epix to distribute its movie rights to its Amazon Instant Video streaming service.134 These include films from Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate).135136 On September 1, 2011, Starz ceased talks with Netflix to renew its streaming deal. As a result, Starz's library of movies and series were removed from the Netflix streaming service on February 28, 2012. Movie titles that are available on DVD were not affected and can be acquired from Netflix by this method.137 However, select movies that have previously been seen on Starz continue to be available on Netflix under license from their respective television distributors. For instance, certain Revolution Studios films shown on Netflix are under license from Lionsgate/Debmar-Mercury. Netflix can also negotiate to distribute animated films from Universal Studios that HBO declines to acquire rights, such as The Lorax and ParaNorman.138 Netflix's "Watch Instantly" also holds rights to back-catalog titles to films from among other distributors, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Netflix also holds current and back-catalog rights to television programs under license by Disney–ABC Television Group, DreamWorks Classics, Kino International, Warner Bros. Television, 20th Television, Hasbro Studios, Saban Brands and CBS Television Distribution. The streaming service also held current and back-catalog rights to television programs distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution, 20th Century Fox Television, Sony Pictures Television, as well as select shows from Warner Bros. Television. Netflix also previously held the rights to select titles from the Criterion Collection, but those were pulled from the streaming library when Criterion titles were added to Hulu's Hulu Plus streaming library.139 On August 23, 2012, Netflix and The Weinstein Company signed a multi-year output deal for releases from Weinstein's RADiUS-TWC unit.140 On December 4, 2012, Netflix and The Walt Disney Company announced an exclusive multi-year agreement for the first-run U.S. subscription television rights to Walt Disney Studios' animated and live-action films. New titles from Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios and Disneynature will be available on Netflix beginning in 2016 (assuming the rights from Starz, making Disney the first major film studio not to distribute its films via a traditional pay television service). However, classic titles such as Dumbo, Pocahontas and Alice in Wonderland immediately became available on the service.141 Direct-to-video new releases were made available in 2013.142143 On January 14, 2013, Netflix signed an agreement with Time Warner subsidiaries Turner Broadcasting System and Warner Bros. Television to distribute content from Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Animation and Adult Swim, as well as TNT's revival of the drama''Dallas'' beginning in March 2013. The streaming rights to Cartoon Network and Adult Swim programs came not long after the expiration of Viacom's rights deal to allow Netflix access to stream programs from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. (which were subsequently assumed by Amazon Instant Video).144 In Canada, Netflix has pay TV rights (approximately 8 months after theatrical release) to films from Paramount, DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox. In 2015, it will assume pay TV rights to films from Disney (including Disney Live Action, Disneynature, DreamWorks Studios, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, and Walt Disney Animation Studios) which are currently held by The Movie Network/Movie Central.145 On September 30, 2014 Netflix announced they would be producing and releasing their first original movie. It is the sequel to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", entitled "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon II: The Green Legend". It is scheduled for release on August 28, 2015 .146 On October 15, 2014, Netflix announced that will begin streaming the complete series of Friends in high-definition, beginning on January 1, 2015.147 By 2014, Netflix couldn't "afford the content that its subscribers most want to watch"148 and lost several contracts for streaming movies, to the point where, according to journalist Megan McArdle, "its movie library is no longer actually a good substitute for a good movie rental place".149